


It's Complicated

by jessalae



Category: Pitch Perfect (2012)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessalae/pseuds/jessalae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I just think plastering every detail of your love life all over the internet in real-time is a disaster waiting to happen, and I don’t think that makes me a horrible pessimist."</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Complicated

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fetchmeagiraffe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fetchmeagiraffe/gifts).



"We have to stop meeting like this," Chloe jokes, pushing aside the shower curtain. "People are going to talk."

"Yeah, whatever," Beca says. Her hair is full of shampoo suds and she's scrubbing furiously at her arms with a loofah. "I needed to talk to you somewhere private. Couldn’t think of anywhere better than this.”

"Is it that bad?" Chloe asks.

Beca sighs and focuses on her fingernails. They aren’t painted, for once, and Chloe can see the specks of dirt usually hidden by nail polish. “It’s not like it’s a big deal,” she says finally. “It shouldn’t be a big deal. We dated for what, two weeks? How can that be a big deal?”

“Yeah,” Chloe acknowledges, “But you did the whole dancing-around-each-other-not-really-dating thing for almost a year. That does actually count as something.”

“It shouldn’t,” Beca says stubbornly.

“Totally agreed, but it sort of explains why you’re feeling so extra-shitty, right?”

Beca grinds her teeth and goes back to scrubbing her arms.

Chloe grimaces. “Look, Beca, break-ups suck. They just do, and the only thing that makes them better is time.” She sighs. “I wish I could help more. Just, try and wait it out until things are less shitty?”

“Yeah,” Beca sighs. “Okay.” She steps under the shower, tipping her head back to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. Chloe swallows hard.

“Okay,” she says brightly. “Good talk! Call me anytime for another one.” She slips out, closing the curtain behind her.

 

***

 

“Why can’t Dead Week be more than a week long?” Stacie groans, flopping backwards on Aubrey’s bed and letting her Sociology notes flutter to the ground.

“Yeah,” Fat Amy says. “I could do with a few more study parties.”

“Or you could try making the ones you do attend more study and less party,” Aubrey says sharply.

“I could, but I do tend to bring the party with me wherever I go,” Fat Amy responds, shrugging. “Can’t help it, just happens.”

The study session devolves into a bickering session about study techniques, study soundtracks, dance breaks, and the merits of being kind of tipsy when writing final papers. Chloe shakes her head and tries to focus on her notes. Her eyes keep drifting, though, wandering up to where Beca is slumped in the beanbag chair by the door, glaring furiously at her laptop. Chloe pushes herself up off the floor and goes to sit next to her, tugging Beca's headphones away from her ears. Beca looks at her in confusion.

“You’re going to burn a hole through that thing with your laser vision if you aren’t careful,” Chloe says.

Beca laughs half-heartedly and closes the laptop, letting her head fall back against the wall. “Facebook relationship statuses are the dumbest idea anyone has ever had,” she says. “Everything’s great when you want to let the world know you’re starting a new relationship… but then you have to let the world know when it all blows up in your face two weeks later. It’s humiliating.”

“Why’d you change it in the first place?” Chloe asks.

“Jesse was doing his, and I thought it'd look weird if I refused. Like I was jinxing the relationship, or something.” Beca rolls her eyes. “Obviously that turned out to be a real problem.”

She falls silent, but Chloe doesn’t know what to say to fill the gap. Over on Aubrey’s bed, the debate over tequila sunrises vs. sex-on-the-beach looks like it might come to blows at any minute.

Finally, Beca sighs. “I just think plastering every detail of your love life all over the internet in real-time is a disaster waiting to happen, and I don’t think that makes me a horrible pessimist. I’d rather tell people face-to-face — the people who actually matter, I mean.”

“I’m with you,” Chloe says. “And for the record? You can always talk to me. Spam my real-life timeline all you want.”

Beca grins, the first real smile Chloe’s seen from her in a while. “Thanks.” She looks over at rest of the girls bed and calls, “You’re all wrong, gin and tonics are where it’s _at_!” and Chloe has to duck to avoid the pillow Fat Amy throws at Beca’s head.

 

***

 

It’s weirdly cloudy, for graduation day — usually these days dawn so sunny and bright that Chloe thinks the Alumni Relations Office must secretly control the weather. Still, it mostly matches how she’s feeling. Surrounded by friends and family, clutching her shiny new diploma, she’s suddenly adrift on a sea of worries, what-ifs and regrets.

She’s about to head off to the grad party Aubrey’s dad is grudgingly throwing when Beca saunters around the corner of the auditorium and makes a casual but unmistakable beeline for her. “You go ahead with Aubrey,” Chloe tells her parents, handing her diploma off to her mom. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

Beca reaches her, and Chloe plasters on a smile. “Hey! I thought you were moving out today?”

Beca bites her lip and lets the silence drag on for a moment. Eventually, she says, “So you know I don’t like having everyone know all my business.”

“Uh-huh,” Chloe says.

“Just the people who matter.”

“Right…”

“But I also don’t want to be that person I was before, who never let anyone in.” Beca crosses her arms, rocking back on her heels. “That was… not so much fun.”

“Didn’t seem like it, no,” Chloe says. 

“So I was thinking,” Beca continues, “I should find a balance where I can open up as much as I want to the people who matter, so…“ She breaks off, taking a deep breath.

Chloe waits, more or less patiently. “So?” she prompts.

“So, this,” Beca says, and kisses Chloe. It’s awkward and fast and barely there, really just a peck, and it makes Chloe feel like she could float right off the ground and do cartwheels in midair. She grins hugely and hugs Beca tight around the waist.

“Chloe likes this,” she says, and Beca laughs against her cheek.

[ ](http://s28.beta.photobucket.com/user/jessalae/media/purimgifts%20graphics/remix319_anon_zpsed652835.png.html)

**Author's Note:**

> Graphic: remix of [A Softer World](http://www.asofterworld.com) [#319](http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=319).


End file.
